By Philbert Shih, theWHIR.com
December 26, 2005 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Automation technology has become so critical to Web hosting that it has spawned an industry in and of its self. And as in the hosting industry, the year in automation was marked by a high volume of mergers and acquisitions activity, along with product releases and upgrades.
In January, certificate authority and security solutions provider Comodo (comodogroup.com) acquired hosting automation software developer Positive Software, creator of the H-Sphere and CP+ control panels. The deal brings Comodo closer to realizing its goal of becoming a complete Web hosting infrastructure provider and presents valuable cross-selling opportunities. Positive’s large hosting customer base will be targeted with Comodo’s SSL certificates and other security products.
In May, Ensim (ensim.com) acquired TeleGea, a provider of service delivery solutions for hosted VoIP services. Backed by the same venture capital firm, the two companies would have become competitors had they not merged. Instead, Ensim will integrate TeleGea’s capabilities, enabling it to provide hosts with the automation tools necessary to add VoIP to their service portfolios.
In October, SWsoft (sw-soft.com) announced it had bought ValueOf Software Technology, a Beijing-based developer of hosting software. ValueOf’s offices will become the headquarters of SWsoft China, headed by CEO Zhang Zili. The China office is one of the company’s three new international offices opened this year. SWsoft Japan opened its doors in May and SWsoft UK opened in December.
And in December, Tucows (tucows.com) bought the hosted messaging assets of Critical Path in an $8 million deal. Tucows, which will maintain Critical Path’s data centers in Denver and London, says the deal enables it to expand in the area of hosted email for Internet service and Web hosting providers.
In a sign of the segment’s continued health, SWsoft and Sphera announced this year that they had secured additional rounds of financing. In July, SWsoft announced that it had closed a $12.4 million round of financing from institutional investors, the first for a company that to this point has been privately funded. Lead investor Insight Venture Partners along with Bessemer Venture Partners and Intel Capital purchased a minority stake. The company was quick to point out that the financing was not driven by any financial struggles, but was made to push the company aggressively into its next stage of growth. CEO Serguei Beloussov says the company is looking to go public some time in the next 24 months.
Sphera closed another round of financing worth approximately $6 million from its existing investors, Bank of America Equity partners, Jerusalem Venture Partners, TLcom Capital Partners and Vision Capital.
Of course, in dealing with the constantly evolving technology of Web hosting, automation developers upgrade their solutions on an ongoing basis. And many released updates to their software in 2005.SWsoft updated its HSPcomplete, Plesk and Virtuozzo solutions, as well as its site builder. Ensim upgraded its Ensim Pro control panel. Softwhizo upgraded its HostingAccelerator. Comodo upgraded H-Sphere. WebHost Automation upgraded Helm. Tucows upgraded its Platypus billing system, while ModernGigabyte updated its ModernBill. And SiteGalore upgraded its site building tool.
Web hosts use a variety of technologies in their infrastructures and back ends. And making these disparate components compatible is an ongoing challenge for hosts. With this in mind, SWsoft announced in September that it would start an open standards initiative focused on integrating hosting systems and technologies. The initiative is known as OPEN FUSION and covers not only SWsoft products, but third party modules, custom and in-house systems and solutions developed by other independent software vendors. The first version of the platform is slated for release early next year and is likely to be at the center of yet another eventful year in the sector.
